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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28377156">a requiem for those who never listened</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/kitty_pryde_bi_pride/pseuds/kitty_pryde_bi_pride'>kitty_pryde_bi_pride</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Umbrella Academy (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Apocalypse, Character Study, Dark Vanya Hargreeves, Gen, Loneliness, Vanya Hargreeves-centric</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-11 00:21:59</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,335</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28377156</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/kitty_pryde_bi_pride/pseuds/kitty_pryde_bi_pride</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>She’s never felt fully human, but now she thinks she’s a god.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>51</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>a requiem for those who never listened</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Little Number Seven has always been too much power and too much feeling in a tiny container- it was inevitable, really, that it’d all spill over eventually.</p><p> </p><p>She’s young but she’s smart – astonishingly so for her age, she works hard for it – and she’s better with her powers than the rest of her siblings.</p><p> </p><p>Numbers One, Two, and Six rely on brute strength, even then, and entirely lack finesse. She could cut them down from a distance and destroy them.</p><p> </p><p>Number Three is too young to know what most words mean and has no idea how to direct her powers to become a threat. She can steal the words from her mouth, the sound from her lips, and her sister would be powerless against her.</p><p> </p><p>Numbers Four and Five have potential to be something great, just like her, but one of them is undriven – even frightened, she thinks – and the other is ambitious for causes other than the one their father has in mind. She doesn’t see a threat from them as long as their path remains separate from hers.</p><p> </p><p>She’s the best of them for a while, but it seems equally inevitable that people would aim to halt her growth, even before she really started to take off- people fear the things stronger than themselves.</p><p> </p><p>Her father talks to her, sometimes, tells her that she’s more special than the rest of her siblings combined and that’s she’s destined for something amazing, if only she can learn to control herself.</p><p> </p><p>Learn to cut out her fragile and tumultuous emotions.</p><p> </p><p>He tries to talk to her about destiny and the end of the world and how he regrets what he’s done to them, but that they’ll understand and even appreciate it one day.</p><p> </p><p>He believes in them but doesn’t trust them, monitors them closely, and seems to treat her like an adult more than he ever does codependent Number Two, whiny Number Four, or nervous Number Six. She thinks this means he might trust her, even a little.</p><p> </p><p>This naïve sense of connection she feels is what prevents her from having her guard up around him.</p><p> </p><p>But she’s only four, barely old enough to understand what powers are, when her sister pulls her aside and tells her that she’s ordinary. That she’ll never be anything more than ordinary.</p><p> </p><p>Her powers grant her an unusual connection to sound, a deeper relationship than anyone else has ever really had, and Number Three’s words somehow reverberate through the air – deep into her bones – and it aches a little.</p><p> </p><p>She feels this numbness begin to inch its way through her, as insidious and biting as the rumor her sister speaks into existence, and it feels so empty that it’s good. She doesn’t want it, knows it’s wrong, but bad things should feel bad and this just feels like nothing – it’s delightfully simple, if anything – and so she accepts the feeling.</p><p> </p><p>Then the vibration stops and it’s sunk in deep and she doesn’t hear anything special at all anymore.</p><p> </p><p>She won’t again for a long time.</p><p> </p><p>-------</p><p> </p><p>Vanya is thrown dramatically into the past with a resounding crash.</p><p> </p><p>Something falls with her, cradled in her arms, and she instinctively cushions it from impacting.</p><p> </p><p>It’s terrifying, of course it is, and she just hits the ground and bounces for a moment before lying still on some painfully hard and biting surface.</p><p> </p><p>She rolls over, feels blood leaking through her palms where she tried to catch herself and through everywhere else when she failed, and her breath rattles in her lungs.</p><p> </p><p>She doesn’t have her bearings yet, but judging by the lack of noise around her, she can guess that she’s landed alone.</p><p> </p><p>And that’s fine, it’ll have to be, because it’s been a long time since the seventh sibling has gotten the chance to be anything but lonely.</p><p> </p><p>It hurts her, because she somehow escaped this apocalypse of her own creation but no one made it out alongside her, so of course even this safety is horribly marred.</p><p> </p><p>Something’s different now, in the past, and it only takes a moment for her to know what it is.</p><p> </p><p>At her core, now that the rumor and pills – her perfect oblivion – are shocked out of her system, she knows that she is fiercely independent and stunningly powerful. Reginald Hargreeves spent her entire life telling her that she was lesser than her siblings due to a lack of powers and could never belong, but she’s been stronger than all of them the entire time without knowing.</p><p> </p><p>Even more so, considering that she has been able to grow separately outside the confining identity of being a teenaged superhero, to develop interests and a personality and talent of her own.</p><p> </p><p>Luther has the moon and Diego has vigilantism, Allison has acting and Klaus has drugs, Five has a chip on his shoulder and Ben had tragedy, but none of them fought to be their own. She has her violin and it suddenly means so much more to her than her power ever could.</p><p> </p><p>It’s enough to give her the strength to place her hands on the ground, pushing herself into a sitting position, and surveys the place she’s fallen.</p><p> </p><p>She’s laid out on a gravel road, which explains the pain and blood from her ungraceful landing, and there’s no buildings in sight. There is however, a battered sign that reads ‘Next Stop: 3 Miles’, which gives her the reason to make it out of here.</p><p> </p><p>Next to her, half-forgotten in her pain-ridden stupor, her violin lies beside her. It’s unharmed – a total miracle that it came through with her, aside from the shock of it surviving the apocalypse and her fall – and she clutches it tightly, tears springing unbidden in her eyes.</p><p> </p><p>Vanya forces herself up and stands, wavering on her feet, but stable regardless.</p><p> </p><p>She may be alone but she’s been alone before; and she now has a direction, a next step to head towards.  </p><p> </p><p>---</p><p> </p><p>Vanya is the only survivor of an overwhelming apocalypse and she doesn’t quite feel anything anymore.</p><p> </p><p>She’s gone from place to place, picking up and collecting every bit of food and drink she can find- though she doesn’t seem to need much these days. She plays on her violin mindlessly, to appease the voice inside herself, filling the silence. She would think she’s been lucky, with all that survived the disaster, but she senses her power guiding her.</p><p> </p><p>She’s never felt fully human, but now she thinks she’s a god. </p><p> </p><p>The apocalypse is empty and she wonders through it absently, entirely directionless. The moon looks broken in the sky, deeply wounded. She plays sad music for it. It almost sounds like it’s weeping- though it could be the souls of all she’s killed, haunting her.</p><p> </p><p>She dares them to pick a fight. She knows they won’t win.</p><p> </p><p>Slowly, she stops feeling the need to eat. She never grows tired, and she never stops walking. Her skin is as paper white as her tattered suit.</p><p> </p><p>She wonders if this was what Reginald planned for them all along. She wonders if she even cares anymore.</p><p> </p><p>Decades pass and she wanders the Earth like an apparition. Five appears and the fires from her destruction still burn. She hears him, the first new heartbeat in years, and ignores it. She has no plans to meet him or keep him company; she deems it merciful enough to let him disturb her peace. His heart beats and she stops playing the violin to listen.</p><p> </p><p>Even more time passes and the Handler arrives to recruit her brother. Vaguely, she thinks she knew this would happen- something that had been mentioned by an older Five from the past, back when she wanted her sibling’s approval and held onto every scrap of attention she could get. He leaves, and she’s alone once more.</p><p> </p><p>She picks up her violin and starts playing again. No one else ever comes. She never passes on.</p><p> </p><p>She does not care that she’s the last thing left.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>wrote this a while ago and forgot about it so here ya go! a overpowered vanya is a cool vanya, yes?</p><p>idk if you can tell by looking at my tua works but i'm a *bit* of a vanya fan</p><p>feel free to leave kudos/comments if you liked it or had any thoughts about it, i love to hear feedback!</p><p>my tumblr is kittypryde-bipride if you want to check it out *shrug*</p><p>have a great night!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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